Forward To Victory
by CrouchingAppleHiddenMuffin
Summary: Sequel to "The Power Of Three" Thirty years have passed and the Three have become powerful and well respected in Chaos' Legion. Meanwhile the God's of Earth have become corrupt and lazy. Now. The three return to finish what they started. Can they defeat the remaining Gods and restore order to the word? Read and find out.
1. Meeting Of The Minds

_Thirty Years Later..._

_Nearly all men can stand adversity.. If you want to test a man's character.. Give. Him. Power. _

~Abraham Lincoln

Here we stand, back where it all began. Here at the end of a normal life. It's funny, thirty years have passed and nothings changed, only now we are immortalized in stone as terrorists. Earthgov sees us as genocidal freaks. We are bastard children who murdered hundreds.

Camp Half-Blood.

It's still empty, just like it was when we left. The ashes have been cleared away and the forest has regrown, but it was still our home. Or it used to be. The years have no doubt changed us. We became what he needed us to be. The battle of Deimos proved our worth. We rose through the ranks faster than any officer in Legion history. We currently each held the rank of Forward Dragoon. We were one rank below Commander. We had our own special unit. The Black Dragoons. We were the best of the best and because of that we were set apart. We each had two subordinates and that was all. There were only nine Black Dragoons at any one time. It was rare for all of us to be together at once. This just so happened to be one of those time.

The world had not done well under the rule of Hera and her ilk. She began to hate the humans. She hated everything. Olympus became evil. Hateful. Dark. The Olympians began to shirk their duties, natural disasters were commonplace now. Ever since Percy had slain Apollo, Helios had tried to take over the sun. However he was a thoughtless God and it wasn't abnormal for days to go by in darkness and vice versa. The earth was descending quickly into Chaos. Perfect.

Today was the day that it had happened. Thirty Years ago today.

Today was the day that we meet with Artemis, the only God who had stayed true to herself. All of the Gods had gone back to their promiscuous ways, but there was nowhere for them to go now but Camp Jupiter for the Romans. The Greek kids were normally killed if not picked up by the Legion.

"She's late." Nico broke the silence. Each of us stood out in the open with our subordinates waiting in the shadows behind. "She's been late for the like ten years. Might as well call this _on time."_ I muttered sarcastically. Thalia stood in the middle of the three of us. She shook her head irritatedly. "Shut up, the both of you, She'll be here." I muttered something incoherent as we continued to wait. The three of us still wore the same black combat fatigues that we had worn to battle on Deimos all those years ago. The only difference was the black dragon patch each of us wore on our right shoulder. It was quite simple really. Just a black dragon with the words _Timere Draco, Mors ab obscuro _stitched in white. It was Latin for "Fear the Dragon, Death from the dark". Each Dragoon wore bandanna's just like ours. Now each of us had the 3 colored differently. Thalia's was Blue, Mine was Green, and Nico's was Dark Grey, each subordinate wore a bandanna with the color of their superior.

Suddenly a figure shimmered into existence in front of us and instantly nine sets of eyes locked onto it. It was Artemis. The Goddess hadn't changed at all. Through the years she had rebuilt the hunters and spent her time off killing monsters. The Hunters were the only real haven for Greek demi-gods anymore. "Lady Artemis." Thalia spoke with a respectful nod to the God. She had been her lieutenant once after all. Now Thalia could probably beat her in single combat. Artemis smiled weakly, "It's good to see the three of you." The sun was high in the sky for the first time in weeks. Artemis appeared weak. "What do you have for us?" I spoke clearly and with authority. Artemis nodded to me reverently, she had no choice but to recognize our power.

"Things have only gotten worse. Hera becomes more of a Lunatic every day. Ethics and morality have gone out the window on Olympus. Aphrodite walks around naked, she has to otherwise her clothes will be ripped off before she is taken where she stands. Ares goes around killing humans at will. Hermes causes more deaths by accident per day than I kill monsters. Hephestus has abandoned his forges and now spends most of his time in a whore house in southern Canada. Demeter now purposefully causes the death of crops and delays the seasons. Everything is going south fast."

This wasn't news to the us. We knew things were getting worse and Aphrodite had always been a whore. We looked at each other then back to Artemis. "Do you think the time has come?" Artemis didn't hesitate. "Yes. They are corrupt. They must go."

Just as quickly as she had come, Artemis disappeared. She had to, or risk arousing suspicion. We didn't stay long after that. Our ship was cloaked just outside of orbit and each of us had sort range teleportation packs. The benefits of being a Black Dragoon didn't end very quickly. So with a quick flick of the wrist, all six of our subordinates disappeared. Now with them gone we could speak in true privacy. We pulled our bandannas down off our faces and looked at each other saying more than we could with words. Each of us knew what had to be done. The Gods had to be overthrown. All of them. Even Artemis. Each God had to be killed and replaced. We had to find replacements. We had to kill eight Gods.

We needed Chaos. We needed his legions.

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**Have I ever mentioned how much I love cliff hangers? Mwuhahaha! Anyway. I'll be writing this when motivation and spare time collide. So don't expect regular updates. If I missed any errors, please point them out. Also, try to keep your reviews about 20 words minimum. While I appreciate all reviews, having my inbox spammed with review notifications for reviews that say "nice." are a bit irritating after a while. ~Muffin**


	2. Meet The Black Dragoons

"Lord Chaos will not be pleased. The Legions are supposed to be on leave for the rest of this month." Thalia said matter of factly. She sat on the bed in our shared quarters looking at me with those big blue eyes of hers. Our ship was a Hellion class cruiser. It was made especially for the Black Dragoons. A unit that had not existed a century ago. The higher ups were good to us, we always got things done quick. When they built the ship they asked us what we wanted to name it, we didn't hesitate. Semis Sanguinus seemed to fit perfectly. Sanguinus was capable of carrying up to twenty comfortably, but since our group was limited to a maximum of only nine at a time there was plenty of room. The Forward Dragoons had their own deck and lounge, as did our subordinates. They were simply called Dragoons. We hand picked them from every corner of the Legions. But we will get to them later. Right now Thalia and I needed to talk. We'd been together for thirty years, yet we still had the bodies of 18 year olds. It was a mind boggling concept, but somehow we were more in love now than we had been all those years ago. We had become one being. We worked best together. We always took the odd contract on the side together, it was like taking a vacation. I sat next to her and gently grasped her hand. She smiled at me. Gods I loved that smile. It made me feel like I could move mountains. Her piercing blue eyes met my deep green ones and time seemed to stop. We hadn't done this in a while. We would sit from time to time in complete silence and just gaze into each others eyes. Her eyes never ceased to fascinate me.

A short while later we lay side by side in silence just staring up at the ceiling. "How are we gonna get him to come on board with this?" I was thinking out loud not really expecting a response, but I got one. "You had a way of ruining moments you know kelp-head." She socked me in the shoulder with a snicker. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek and sat up. I wasn't quite sure how we were going to convince Chaos to commit a bulk of his forces to invade a peaceful world, but it needed to be done. All we'd done for him up to this point would help our case, but Chaos didn't like getting involved in the affairs of the Gods. He certainly wouldn't send them any sort of aid if a new war were to arise soon after the three of us joined his Legions. No way. That's bullshit. Conveniently since that didn't happen, we had other things to worry about. We needed to call a meeting and discuss everything with the entire unit. Sanguinus was still six hours out from Vulcia so we had some time but not much. The best place for that was the Forward Dragoons lounge. It was complete with a holo projector in the center of the room that we normally used to watch TV. ChaosCable was eons better than Hephaestus TV. It had seats all around it for the Forward Dragoons, but with the push of a button six more seats rose from the floor to create enough space. The Forward Dragoons had seats that were slightly raised and each of their subordinates sat on the right and left side of them.

I was the first to arrive. I casually looked from one end of the room to the other and there was no sign of Percy or Thalia. "What else is new?" I sighed and my Dragoons groaned. I had two of them just like Percy and Thalia, but mine were different. At my left was James Cooper, he was a man who had the ability to see through the mist. It had driven him mad and he was eventually thrown into a psych ward. He broke out and killed seven orderlies using nothing more than a spork and a broken broom stick. The three of us found him shivering in an alley fifteen years ago while out on assignment. He'd been with the Legion ever since. On my right was Alyssa Holt, she was the Captain who had scouted us for Chaos back on earth when we first started. I'd later found out that she was a legacy. Her parents had been in the Legion before her, and even though her father had gone down in the only battle Chaos ever lost, Alyssa was expected to join the Legions. She had done pretty well for herself. She was promoted to Rear Star Admiral after coming to our rescue on earth. That was before being recruited to the Dragoons twenty two years ago. She was the longest serving Dragoon in our command. Usually Dragoons are either killed in battle, resign, or request to be reassigned. We never kept anyone around who didn't want to be there. We'd always thought it odd. Dragoons were only two steps below the top of the ladder. Only superseded by Forward Dragoons, Commanders and Chaos himself. It was a lucrative position, but it had a lot of occupational hazards. Percy always sent new recruits on insanely difficult missions. If they passed they were in, if they failed and admitted it we didn't kill them. The Black Dragoons were Chaos' personal guard when the Lord of the Void appeared publicly, which was rare. So we had a lot of time to ourselves. We'd take contracts from whoever paid more and do the odd assassination for a Commander once in a while. It was a fun life.

Thalia came in next, she had to go and rouse her subordinates which explained why she wasn't with Percy. When those two weren't on assignment they were inseparable. Thalia's subordinates were twin sisters named Ryko and Nymo Chidori. Two Asian girls who had been master assassins back in the early twentieth century. That is until they got cornered in a butcher shop. They were about to commit sepuku when Chaos appeared before him. They had been our superiors after Larsson took an artillery shell to the neck. Thalia had bonded with the girls during our short stay under their command, and as such they were happy to serve in the Black Dragoons. They were slightly shorter than Thalia, specializing in edged weapons. Whenever a job had to be completed in absolute stealth it always fell to Thalia's group.

Finally, Percy stumbled in he had a clearly defined red mark on his face in the shape of a hand. I rolled my eyes. "You walked in on Kate again didn't you?" I groaned. Percy may be one of the greatest warriors Chaos has ever known, but he was still my kelp head. Kate Priest was Percy's left hand. She was the greatest tactician in all of the Legion put together. She had nearly beaten Chaos at chess once. She thought she had him but she had inadvertently exposed her king. She surrendered two moves later and had then mourned for a week, watching the tapes over and over. She was also something of a nymphomaniac. It only happened once in a while but she would get insatiably aroused at odd moments. So far, Percy had walked in on her four times during these moments. At first I thought Kate might make a move on him, when I confronted her about it she nearly peed her pants out of fear. Ever since, she's self serviced. Percy's other subordinate stood laughing in the doorway as Kate shuffled out of hall half-red with embarrassment. It wasn't like Percy hadn't seen her nude before or anything, but she was very shy by nature. Unless she was drunk, then all hell broke loose, last time she had too many we had to replace the holo projector in the Dragoon lounge. "Ya know Cap'n if ya keep walking in on her like that, Thalia might get to worryin'." Spoke the sniggering Murphy Saint. He was Irish by blood and Irish in behavior. He made a name for himself with the Irish Mafia. He was in charge of all their drug dealing efforts. Eventually he got run down by the cops, at which point he stripped off his shirt and screamed. "Ya won't take me living savvy!" He killed fifteen of Ireland's finest with his bare hands. It was only then that the Captain of Chaos who'd been watching him came forward.

Shortly thereafter, Kate managed to calm down and everyone got seated. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Black Dragoons, first I must congratulate you. Our last assignment went off without a hitch and the funds have been wired to our account." Percy began, giving a general nod to the group. "Eh what did ya expect Cap'n? We've been at this for years now. Bleeding pros we are." Saint spoke up with hearty laugh. He was the comic relief for all of us, and that one did garner a smile around the table. "Thank you Murphy, now on to our next order of business. As you are all aware, approximately nine hours ago we made a quick detour to a planet in Sector E23. A plant all of you know well as Earth. All of you are no doubt aware by this point of the existence of the Greek gods of legend. Some of you are Demi-Gods like Thalia, Nico and I. However, we are the last of our kind as thirty years ago there was an insurrection on Olympus and our fathers were murdered in the resulting coup." He paused for a moment to allow this to sink in. "Today we met with the only god who remains that has kept at least part of her sanity. The goddess of the moon, Artemis." Percy taped a button on his arm rest and a microsecond later a 3-D rendering of the goddess floated in midair before them. "She confirmed what we have been hearing rumblings of for years. The gods of Olympus have finally become completely corrupted and are now vulnerable. Each of the remaining eight gods have shirked his or her duties and as a result need to be dealt with. This will not be an easy task." Percy switched to a rendering of the empire state building. "While mount Olympus may be hidden on the 600th floor of the empire state in New York, Artemis confirmed that it is mostly abandoned and the only God who is there anymore is Hera. She was the mastermind behind the original genocide." I swallowed hard, this was still a touchy subject for us. Nico looked like he might puke. The Dragoons noticed how disturbed we were and that bothered them, Forward Dragoons never showed emotion. "Hera we have decided to save for last. It has been 30 years since the destruction of Camp Half-Blood, and as far as we know there was never a new camp created. This is not confirmed. We have knowledge that indicates the existence of a Roman Camp that would definitely come to the aid of the Gods if needed." Percy sighed, "People I'm not gonna lie to you, the three of us have been waiting for this day for several decades. We want these gods dead. They killed our friends and people we considered family. But, we cannot do this alone. Right now we are in sub-warp heading towards Vulcia. Chaos is there for this month for the launch of the Morsus. We are expected to be in attendance for that event but afterward the Forward Dragoons will go before Chaos. We are talking a full scale military invasion of planet earth. Do I make myself clear?" There was a chorus of "Aye" from the Dragoons. "Good. Depending on how our meeting with Chaos goes this may be our last time of shore leave for a while. Take advantage of it. Spend some credits down in Aliquam Paradiso. We will be arriving in Sector 01 in approximately four hours. Until then, Dismissed."

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**To the dick heads who purposefully posted reviews that said, "Nice." Here is what I say to you, sincerely and from the bottom of my heart. **

**Hardy har har har. ~Muffin**


	3. Chaos Wears A Bathrobe

We dropped out of warp a couple hours later. We arrived to a scene of gargantuan proportions, there it was. "The Morsus.. It's complete.." I spoke with an astounded ere. Chaos had been funding Project Hurricane for several decades. The Morsus had been set to launch soon after we had joined the Legions, but thanks to a bit of sabotage and a good portion of the ship having to be rebuilt and redesigned, it took significantly longer. The Morsus was in Inferno class ship. By comparison it had about the same mass as the planet Mars in Sector E23. It had planetary class guns the size of our ship entire ship, which was roughly the size of the Saturn V heavy lifter that put humans on the moon almost a hundred years ago now. We flew the Sangiunis around the length of the ship. It was massive. Simply massive, the ship was designed to be the symbol of the might of Chaos. It would hold and maintain the Legions in their entirety for decades. But behind it was something mightier, the main base of Chaos' Legions. Planet Vulcia, the home planet of the Black Dragoons. Home. "Semis Sanguinis, Semis Sanguinis, this is Star Admiral Ron Falcon. Come in Sanguinis." The radio crackled to life. Star Admiral Falcon was in charge of all the space surrounding Vulcia. Nico grabbed spoke clearly and with purpose. "Star Admiral Falcon, this is Forward Dragoon Di'Angelo, requesting docking codes for bay 0229." Familiarity, it was nice to hear. "Codes are sent. Welcome home Dragoons."

The ship touched down ten minutes later. Our subordinates were dismissed as soon as the ship was on the ground, so that left us to go see the big boss. I glanced back at Alyssa and Nico just quickly enough to see her give him a peck on the cheek before going off with the other Dragoons. They'd been together off an on through the years. Their personalities were just close enough together to clash, but just far enough apart to attract. I looked at Thalia, and she at me. Annabeth said long ago that we would either be best friends or worst enemies, who knew we would end up falling in love? I reached out and took her hand and she gave it a reassuring squeeze. Nico came and stood next to us with a raised eyebrow, before he could spit out a cutting remark I kicked him in the shin. He didn't even blink. Pain was nothing to us now. "Shall we go say hello to the Lord of the Void?" Thalia cut in, defusing the situation. Nico muttered something under his breath and I nodded and off we went.

Chaos stood in his throne room, located deep within Vulcia, close enough to the core that he could gaze into if he desired. He had ordered not to be disturbed so he hadn't bothered to put his suit on today. He wore nothing more than a bath robe and a t-shirt. He gazed into the lucis visius with a look of contemplation on his face. He had seen the events transpiring on earth. He knew that something would have to be done eventually. After all he is the nothingness from which all else sprang. It was his duty to do something once in a while. What else was he going to do with his armies? The Morsus was set to launch in less than a week. It would be his first public appearance in a good amount of time. "What am I to do with you Gods.." He muttered to no one in particular. It was then that he sensed another presence in the room with him. Three of them to be exact. Quickly he changed his outer appearance to match that of his normal attire. A white suit with black pinstripes, white shirt, black vest and tie. He stood facing away from them looking at the massive readout before him, a mirror of the screen on the Donec Pretium. "Welcome back to Vulica, Dragoons. I trust your mission went according to plan." Chaos spoke with power and poise in his voice, not allowing for a single iota of sway to indicate his mood. "Yes Lord Chaos." They spoke in unison. These three had served him for decades of their time, they knew how to behave in his presence. He was not to be trifled with. "That is good to hear, what was the the profit margin this time? Any casualties?" He turned to face them and they rose, once more in unison, from a bow before him. Percy stepped forward, he was the mouth piece of the Dragoons. "No casualties Lord Chaos. The payment was as expected, 2.8 million credits. We have already distributed among the Dragoons." Chaos nodded, he had no need for money. While they were his Dragoons what they did when not on assignment was their business. The god started to turn around when a voice stopped him. "Lord Chaos, We have another matter to discuss with you."

He took it well. He sat there the whole time with his head resting on his hand, just looking at us as we explained the nature of things on earth. He knew most of it already of course, it was his business to know. "Artemis recommended that the gods of earth be replaced?" Chaos questioned, seemingly putting the pieces together in his mind. "She made it clear that a full scale invasion of earth is in order. The Romans will defend the gods surely, and we can't be sure that Hera hasn't put together a pseudo-camp half-blood for the Greek kids." Chaos sighed and stood, that was never a good sign. He turned away from us before speaking. "There is something that you don't know." He stepped closer and spoke, "Display Time Decay Algorithim, subscript seventeen." A micro second later a lot of algebraic gibberish appeared on the screen. But there was a few words we understood. _"Time Decay during sustained warp is approx. four years per light year of space traveled. Early tests display symptoms of a stoppage of time for all beings subject to warp." _ Chaos began to speak. "It may have felt like thirty years to you, but in reality it has been about three hundred. Traveling though warp space stops time for all aboard the ship, but time outside marches on. A warp trip from here to Sector E23 may take no more than a few hours, but to the humans, the time that flows is something like ten years. The nano-mites in your bodies keep you from noticing. The humans are far more advanced than you think. Several decades ago they launched their first ship capable of sustained warp, but they did not yet have the technology. If we send the legions, they will see us coming and will likely meet us in orbit. The ensuing battle would decimate the human race."

My eyes widened staring at the words on the screen in disbelief. I looked to my left and my right, Thalia had tears in her eyes and Nico looked angry. "You knew.. All this time. You knew.. It's been three hundred years! This is insane.." He yelled, trying to stay composed. "Lord Chaos.. everyone we knew was already dead. If they went for rebirth, they've already died a second and third time! For all we know our fathers could have reformed or something!" Thalia ranted, and Chaos took it all in stride as if he knew this would happen. He expected it I realized later. He shook his head. "No my dear Thalia, The big three really are dead. You would think they would reform, but there is a secret beyond fear to killing a god. The wife of Hercules, Hebe, is the goddess of youth. She is Hera's ally. She removed the youth from the big three. Their weapons failed them. They were overwhelmed in moments. They have burned in Tartarus for the last three centuries. Combine that with the lack of worship from the Greeks, and you have a combination that could cause a god to fade regardless." Our worlds were now officially rocked. "That is part of the reason why the gods have gone so crazy, they get no praise anymore, they have been starved prayers. Liken it if you will to starving a vampire of blood. They get desperate and insane, and the same is happening to the Gods."

Chaos began to pace considering the options. We were still trying to digest the fact that we had lived for over three hundred years and not noticed. It made sense when I thought about it, the only time we went to earth we never went near a city. On Vulcia everyone was on the same time frame, as time is relative to you and your perception of it. We would have never known about this, but he chose to tell us. We could take the Legions to earth, but there was no guarantee the human race would survive. I finally found my voice. "Lord Chaos, why are you telling us this now?" He sighed, "Percy, the humans have been in almost perpetual war for the last three hundred years, yet the population continued to rise, right now it rests at one hundred billion. The earth is horribly over populated. People resort to cannibalism daily. If I send my Legions there it wouldn't be for a war. It was be to help those people. Sure the wealthy get off world, they go to other planets. Mars has a thriving colony of a few million, as does the moon. The armies of earth are so vast by now that ninety percent of the population is enlisted. Their armada grows by the year and while their largest ship is just shy of Dog class, It would still be two massive ships against many. I'm trying to get you to understand. This is something not to be taken lightly. It would be the first time we've ever had to use the planetary guns. What if we miss? What if we hit earth!? Percy this is why I'm telling you this! There is far too great a threat of collateral damage! For all you know the Romans have a star fleet of their own. All I know for certain is that no human has warp capabilities. They would detect us the moment we dropped out of warp though. Percy.. This is the single riskiest request the three of you have ever made." Now I could see, Chaos had to consider everything. It wasn't that he thought we would lose, he knew we wouldn't. He knew we would decimate whatever we ran into. That was what he was worried about. This campaign against the gods would cost hundreds of millions if not billions of human lives. "Mankind is one of the few intelligent creatures that came about over the countless eons Percy. I will let you do as you have asked on one condition. Do not wipe out mankind. Do what you need to do, but do not establish new Gods. Let the humans rule themselves. I want to see what they will do with the freedom."

We left the throne room in a daze. Our lives have lasted for centuries longer than intended, we had killed thousands of people. We had lived half a dozen life times and not even known it. Percy was the first to speak. "Guys, why didn't we see it coming?" He had held a stone face in the throne room, but now I could see him breaking, his facade was wavering. "My mom died centuries ago.. and I wasn't there to say goodbye.." His face fell, he looked like he was about to cry. I reached out and grabbed his hand. I had to let him know that the world hadn't ended. Sure my mom had died somewhere in there, didn't matter to me. She hated me and I returned the favor. We returned to our private quarters to allow the news to sink in.

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**Plot twist! Review please. ~Muffin**


	4. The Brothers And The Darkness

Two days later we stood before the Brothers, a council composed of all the commanders in Chaos' legions. All told there were seven, one for each of the battle cruisers in the fleet. Soon to be eight once the commander of the Morsus was named. Each of them looked rather intimidating above us, the chamber of the Brothers was set up sort of like a court room. They were seated behind an elevated desk in front of us. Except we didn't have chairs or lawyers. Normally, when the legion went to war, the case was presented to the Brothers first, then to Chaos. We had cut out the middle man and all that was left for them to decide was which ships would go with us. We couldn't order them to go after all. "Lord Chaos has already given you his blessing for this campaign. Why do you need us?" Commander Dominic Stross of the Oblitus Aurora questioned. The Aurora was the oldest ship in the fleet, some say as old of the legion itself. Stross was also one of the longest serving members of the Legion ever. He loved the Aurora. He didn't lead her into battles he that he had even the slightest shred of doubt about. "Brothers, We come before you seeking the aid of your ships and men. Chaos has given us his support. We are to mount a full scale invasion of Earth in the coming months, to accomplish such a task, we need your ships." I spoke with clear authority. The Black Dragoons were ranked just under commanders. We weren't to be trifled with. Each man who sat before us had served Chaos for a least a century. Gaining command of a massive ship like the Donec Pretium or the Morsus took insane dedication to the caliber that we had yet to reach. "Gentlemen I for one have suffered under the tyranny of these Gods before, they cast me out when they needed me most and they suffered for it. I will throw my lot in with the Black Dragoons. The Donec Pretium will follow you into battle." Commander Stryker spoke up for the first time since the meeting started. He was a son of Ares, war was his forte. We each gave him a respectful nod that he returned before leaning back into the shadows behind the forum. He was no longer a factor in the discussion.

"Black Dragoons, how are we to know that you did not coerce Lord Chaos into doing your bidding? We all know how much the lord of the void favors his Dragoons." Commander Victor Dragon chimed in. He commanded one of the two carriers in the fleet. If it came to a battle of star ships, either the Fata Supra or the Estuans Urbem would have to come with us. The Fata Supra was under the command of Victor Dragon, and the Estuans Urbem was under Ryan Fox. Both of them were very capable commanders, each had led his ship for decades, each had earned the unquestioning loyalty of their crew behind them. Since we knew that Earth was capable of a space faring armada, we didn't want to take any chances. Fox leaned forward into the light and glanced over at Victor, "My my my Victor. We've grown suspicious in our old age haven't we?" Ryan Fox was an odd character. He was a lanky redheaded man who'd fought for the Russians in world war two. He'd single handily routed an entire bunker of Nazis. That was enough to get Chaos' attention. "Do you not believe the story of our most favored Dragoons? The ones who have done so much for us that we should be in their debt. You sir, have an odd sense of trust." Fox glared at Victor Dragon with distaste in his eyes. Victor leaned back out of the light, muttering incoherently. "Thank you Commander Fox. We appreciate your support." Thalia bowed respectively in response to his remarks. "Don't be so hasty miss Syren... Just because I don't believe Lord Chaos could be coerced by you does not mean that I support your cause." Fox glanced back and forth between the three of us, as if he wasn't sure what to make of our little outfit. He was one of the few commanders who hadn't ordered a hit to be carried out by us. "Brothers, We have come before you today to gather support for the upcoming campaign. We mean no disrespect. Chaos has given his full support. He expects you do to the same, though you may do as you wish." Fox raised an eyebrow at this. That last part was more or less a bluff, each ship in the fleet was under the command of Chaos sure, but the commanders could choose to stay in the system. All they had to do was blame technical problems and the invasion was off. "We know very well what the lord of the void expects of us Dragoons, but with the launch of the Morsus so close at hand, you would do well to remember your rank. You have no voice here. We could decide to send you and Stryker alone." Victor Dragon piped back into the conversation. He was clearly annoyed, as was Fox. This wasn't going well. Especially since Victor had addressed us as a whole and not spoken directly to Nico, who had spoken. Then the man in the middle, the eldest Brother spoke up, his name was Thaddeus Mount, "Distinguished Brothers and honored Dragoons, I believe this meeting should be adjourned until such time that the commander of the Morsus joins the council. You already have the support of commander Stryker. That is enough for now." He nodded before standing. "We will consider your proposal in the meantime. Until then, Prevail." He turned and left the room, and with that the light shut off and the meeting was over. We didn't even have a chance to respond to his remarks.

_Meanwhile On Earth.. _

Pathetic. All of them. I stood looking down from Olympus at these pathetic Heroes that had come to be in the past few centuries. The Roman camp had begun accepting all demi-gods who arrived at their gates. Camp Jupiter now had two halves, one for the Greeks and one for the Romans. They paled in comparison to what we had in the last titan wars. These heroes paled in comparison. I hated all of them. Children of the remaining Gods, all of them strong, willing to die in defense of Olympus, and die they would. We hadn't seen hide or head of the three in centuries, I could only assume one of two things. Either they were obliterated in the massive lightning storm over LA, or they had disappeared somehow. More than likely they were dead by now. "You hate them." A voice spoke seemingly directly into my ear. I whirled around in fear only to find the throne room empty. No one there but me. Three empty thrones stood vacant at the far end of the throne room, still unoccupied after all these years. The seas had become deadly on a good day. The skies stormed constantly. The underworld was unforgiving, no one went to Elysium anymore. I searched for the source of the voice, but I was truly alone in the throne room. "Kill them." My eyes widened, and I turned about frantically. "Where are you!?" I shouted, my voice echoing endlessly throughout the dead city around me. The Gods never spent time here anymore. Only me. Then suddenly it stood before me. It wasn't human. It was evil. I could feel the darkness that surrounded it sucking the very light out of the room. It was feeding on my fear. It's voice was demonic in that it sounded as though it was thousands of people speaking at once. I tripped over my own two feet and fell back onto my throne. "Queen of Olympus, They grow powerful once more.." It's words bounced around in my mind like a ping pong ball. The arm of the being before me gestured to the camp I had been looking at. As soon as his arm stretched out, I saw ten campers drop dead. A moment later what looked like wisps of air were absorbed by it, it had collected their souls. "It is time to cull the herd.." The being before me came closer. I felt everything happy that remained in me being sucked out. It hurt. I cried out in misery. It was making me miserable. "What are you!?" I shouted, completely terrified. It seemed to pause at this. Then suddenly, all the light left the room, it had taken the light. All the happiness in my body was gone, it had taken the memories. It began to grow. It fed on the happiness and light and replaced it with nothing but darkness. Then it spoke, and its voice came from everywhere at once. "I am that which drives one to death. I am that which kills. I am that which saddens. I am that who steals all hope. I am nightmares. I am despair. I am evil. I am Darkness!" I felt cold. It was feeding on me. It loomed in front of me. A massive shadow, a shadow that encompassed the entire room. I clenched my eyes shut. "What do you want me to do?" I spoke, my voice failing me. It was weak. I was weak. "Prepare for war." It seemed to whisper into my very mind, because when I opened my eyes, it was gone. The being responsible for the massacre of the demi-gods centuries ago, had returned.

_Back on Vulcia, in Aliquam Paradiso _

"Another round ya cacked handed blue whore!" Murphy shouted at the barmaid. He was already rapidly approaching drunk. He was having a grand old time, this was his natural habitat. Kate Priest was sitting across the bar from him nursing her second drink and reading a book on battle tactics. The Chidori twins were on the dance floor, James Cooper was sitting at a booth surrounded by women of varying species, and here I was. Making sure that Murphy Saint didn't make a complete and utter fool of himself. This particular bar that we were haunting that night was the same club where I'd met Franklin all those years ago. I'd hadn't heard from him since. "You know Murphy, if Percy comes in here and find you drunk, again, he'll have a cow." Kate said, speaking to the drunken Irishman. Murphy laughed in that way that only the Irish can and quickly downed his drink. "Ya know Priesty, If I didn't know better, I'd think you were actually trying to watch me back." Kate rolled her eyes and looked at me with a sarcastic ere. "What do ya think Alyssa? Is old Priest over there, tryin to look after little old Murphy?" At that point he invaded my personal space, that was a no no. So, without missing a beat I gave him two quick jabs to the torso and a kick to the back of the knee. Given his drunken state, he fell like a sack of hammers. He wheezed on the floor trying desperately to catch his breath. Between coughs I managed to make out a strained, "Fuck you." No one paid him any attention, it was normal for brawls in this part of Paradiso. Especially when Soldiers of Chaos were around. Kate muttered under her breath and sighed before going over to see if her fellow Dragoon was okay.

It was at this point that a sound came from the dance floor, it sounded like a scream of pain. "Not good..." I heard Kate murmur behind me. Then I remembered, the Chirdori twins were on the dance floor. If someone even slightly threatened either of the Chidori twins, they would die. That's just how they did things. I drew my sidearm and armed the weapon. A rail pistol, a gift from Nico. I plunged into the crowd and found to my surprise that the music had stopped and the crowd parted before me. Then I came before a scene the was going to result in all of us getting chewed out. Ryko had cut the arms off of a man and then decapitated him. The order in which that occurred was a mystery at that point, giving that the body lie in a pool of its own blood and Ryko stood there. Bowed before it, they always did this after a kill or battle. She was thanking the japanese god of battle or something like that. Regardless, a man had been killed. A man that was not alone. A quick glance at him showed me something I didn't want to see. "Oh shit.." I crouched down and inspected one of the arms. It was clearly marked with a Numbare tattoo. A second later I heard the sound of a blaster charging, then said blaster came into view next to my head, pointed at Ryko. I sighed, so much for a night off. I grabbed the offending hand and pulled it forward. I then buried the muzzle of my pistol in the crook of the neck and fired. The round cut clean through him so fast he didn't have time to react he just dropped. "Dragoons to me!" I shouted, and just like that James flipped a table, Nymo burst from the crowd, Murphy caught his breath and Kate put her book down.

"You know, I'm kinda glad the Brothers decided to wait till the Morsus is launched." Nico remarked casually as we made our way through Aliquam Paradiso to the club where our subordinates were. "Why's that?" I asked as we passed a Duvarian snuff merchant. Thalia and I didn't show any signs of our relationship outside the walls of the Legion side. Yet we still walked close together. "It gives us time to relax a bit. You know how long it's been since we had down time at all?" That gave me pause to think. "Uh.." I was a bit stumped, it really had been a while. "The last time I remember was after we captured Deimos." Thalia chimed in, saving me from utter stumpedness. She smiled at me like she always does. We turned a corner just in time to see a man fly through the window of the club we were going to. "Well... That's interesting.." Nico commented, as we came closer we noticed something peculiar, his neck was broken. We stopped dead in our tracks and shared a look. Instantly, our mannerisms changed, we knew our subordinates were in there. Judging from the sounds, we had just walked in on a micro war. A sign by the front door clearly read, "Numbare Members Drink Free! Tonight Only!"

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**I love plot twists. It all is beginning to make sense eh? Review please. ~Muffin**


	5. Morsus

The scene was complete and total chaos. It was a brawl of epic proportions and from the looks of it, escalation was the only possibility at this point. The three of us stood there looking through the broken window at the pandemonium ensuing in the building. "What the hell is going on in here?" I muttered, not sure if my Dragoons started this or not. I scanned the crowd looking for Kate or Murphy, one of whom I was sure had something to do with this. However, after having no luck with this I decided it was time to jump into the fray. Just as I turned to mention this to Thalia and Nico though, something caught my eye. There was a man standing on the bar with something in his hands, and he was pointing it at us. Quickly I turned my head to look and there was a green dot on Thalia's head. I felt rage course through my veins for the next few seconds my body moved automatically. I grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down with one hand while my other hand drew my pistol and proceeded to take aim at the man on the bar. The man noticed my actions and trained his weapon on me, but no sooner than he had done that did I empty my clip into him. Eight shots hit him center mass and he dropped like a ton of bricks. A little gauge on the slide of the modified 1911 informed me the clip was exhausted and a recharge timer came up. This attracted a lot of attention from the brawlers. "Cap'n!" I heard distinctly nearby. "Cap'n Percy!" I looked to my left just in time to see Murphy Saint tackle two rather large Numbare operatives. He then rushed over to me. "It's good to see ya Cap'n.." By this point, my years in the legions had kicked in and I was in Forward Dragoon mode now. "Murphy, report." Murphy looked at me as if I had sprouted antennae. "The Numbare are attacking us Cap'n. I don't know the cause." I looked back to Thalia and Nico and they nodded. "Then kill them Dragoon. They must learn what happens when they mess with Chaos." Saint grinned a sadistic grin before nodding, "Aye Cap'n." He then leapt into the fray his fists flew left and right with a mad fury.

Soon afterward Kate morphed out of the crowd next to me. "Sir." She acknowledged me with a nod. The fight was coming quickly to an end as the Numbare dead continued to pile up around the Dragoons. "Priest I want to know what happened here and I want to know yesterday!" I shouted, I felt my temper rising as I looked over the crowd. Only a few remaining Numbare remained, the Chidori twins were terminating the cartel with extreme prejudice. I stood there watching what looked like a scene from Kill Bill, fountains of blood spurted up each time they swung a their swords. James Cooper was beating a man with a chair, Saint was brawling like drunken Irish man and Alyssa was shooting people. This wasn't going to take long.

And it didn't, about ten minutes later Ryko made her last cut and the last Numbare fell dead. All told, the Numbare lost 129 men that night. I looked at the subordinates with an ere of disapproval. "Back to the barracks. Now." We weren't supposed to teleport unless it was extremely important. This counted.

"Someone had better start explaining what happened and they better start right fucking now or I swear to Chaos you will all have your shore leave canceled for the next decade!" Percy ranted. He was absolutely furious at us, and he had right to be. After all, massacring Numbare cartel members wasn't something that we were encouraged to do. It was at that moment that Alyssa began to speak. "Captain, I do not know how this began completely, all I know is that Ryko drew first blood. Then it escalated from there." He turned to look at Ryko who nodded. "They disrespected me. A man tried to, how you say, cope a feel? So I returned the favor with my blade. I parted him from his arms before removing his head." I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and it turned out the sound emanated from Thalia, she had face palmed. "Ryko you can't just kill people because they try to grab your ass!" Percy shouted in an exasperated tone. Murphy sat next to me snickering, he knew he wasn't to blame but he got to kick ass anyway so he was satisfied. "Fine then, because of this little outburst, back to the barracks. Now. The Morsus launches in two days and we have to be ready."

_Two Days Later_

"How on earth are we supposed to secure this crowd?" James Cooper spoke up as the Dragoons looked out from their ship at the proverbial sea of people who had come out to see the Morsus jump to warp for the first time. "We'll do it like we always have, play it by ear." Alyssa tapped her ear piece that each of the Dragoons wore. They were all crowded by the window looking down at the planet. Of course the Morsus was not exactly there. It was almost as big as the planet. A very large monument was there though. It was temporarily located in the center of the main plaza on the Chaos side of Vulcia. Judging from the crowd, most of the people who lived on the Chaos side were present. The three Forward Dragoons were not part of this display on the observation deck however. They were already on the ground. The Black Dragoons had arranged their positions the day before. All they were waiting for was the order to teleport.

My radio came to life with the sound of Nico's voice. "There are a lot of people here." I looked up from my perch across the square to where Nico was positioned. "We've handled this big a group before." Thalia chimed in. The Plaza was like the marketplace for the legions of Chaos. Think the Superdome in New Orleans, but bigger, and made mostly of glass. It was really really big. Currently in the center of it was the obelisk that held the name of the new ship, it's class, and how many in crew it would carry. The program would go like this. Chaos would make a speech and then he would press his palm to the obelisk to activate it. Sending a signal to the Morsus that they were go for first warp. The whole process shouldn't take more than half an hour if that. The crowd was starting to get restless, not a good thing when an area meant for a million people at max capacity had 1.2 million crammed into it. "Suffer calling Sangunis, mission is go. Repeat, mission is go." I spoke into my mic and no more than ten seconds later there were six individual flashes around the area as the subordinates teleported in. "When is Lord Chaos getting here Cap'n?" Saint inquired, a question to which I didn't exactly know the answer to, but a question that was answered moments later when a vortex opened on stage.

Chaos stepped out of the vortex dressed in his usual attire. He looked out at the crowd with a look that could collapse a mountain. "Greetings my Legionaries." His voice rang out like he was standing right in front of you. "I am very excited to be standing before you today, on this most momentus of occasions. The launch of the Inferno class Morsus!" The crowd cheered as Chaos continued his speech. I observed the crowd restlessly looking for something that I prayed I wouldn't find. Someone out of the ordinary. While Lord Chaos was as strong as a being could be, he still needed protection. Any attempt against him, if successful, wouldn't kill him, but it would put him out of commission for a while. Not good given the fact that he leads a massive army. We had heard Chaos rehearsing his speech endlessly for the past day so I tuned him out and focused my eyes on the crowd. I was searching for any signs of unrest, such as surging or shifting strangely. I saw none at the moment, I looked across the square and saw none of the other Dragoons moving so that meant they shared my conclusion. I didn't want to sound cliché so I didn't say it right then, but it was too quiet for my liking.

Now, the Black Dragoons were mostly a formality, after all who doesn't want your own personal hit squad covering you? Chaos couldn't be killed like the lesser God's of earth. He could however be knocked out of commission. That is to say, put in a coma. We are here to prevent this. On this particular day we would be tested. I noticed something odd near the front of the stage, it was someone in the crowd moving oddly. Just as I started to mention it to Murphy and Kate to take care of it Chaos reached the end of his speech, which I had of course heard before. "And now Ladies and Gentlemen.. the part of the show you came to see." He turned and walked toward the obelisk. "The power of the Morsus!" What that he pressed his hand to the monument and it glowed red for a split second before a beam of light burst forth from the top. At that moment the crowd looked up, I was still looking at the one person in the crowd who was still looking at Chaos. "Murphy, target eyeing Chaos at the front of the stage. Remove him." A moment later there were two dim flashes right were the character had previously been standing. What had happened consisted of Murphy teleporting over, killing the man, and desposing of the body in space before teleporting back. This all happened in the span of ten seconds. Of course, sometimes Saint didn't kill them and just left them in space. But that's another story.

While Saint had been occupied by the random dead guy, the Morsus had charged up and given the countdown to warp. It was broadcast on massive screens all around the area. Five. I looked back to the audience. I saw someone starting to charge the stage. Four. With no time to spare I teleported down. Three. I grabbed him and teleported him into space without killing him. Two. It was a diversion. One. I teleported back into the area no more than five seconds later to find it severely damaged. Several massive explosions had rocked the building. I would later find out that the man charging the stage wanted a better view and died for nothing. Three Numbare Cartel members had sneaked into the area and detonated suicide vests. The death toll would be was in the hundred thousands. The first bomb was towards the back of the crowd, the second at the middle, and the third was in front of the stage. Chaos was caught in the blast. The Morsus had warped away the moment the explosions occurred. Chaos however was not so lucky.

The devastation was tremendous. As soon as I recognized what happened I looked about and saw that none of the Dragoons were present in the arena anymore. I tuned in on the more public bands on the radio. "Chaos down Chaos down!" I heard Nico shouting. "All forces report to barracks. All forces report to barracks." That was undoubtedly the voice of Thaddeus Mount. "Ready Chaos' chambers. We will be there momentarily." Thalia commanded calmly. I locked only her transmission and teleported to her location. Ready for the worst.

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**Sorry for the slow updates. Being a senior in HS is busy. Enjoy the new chapter. Review more please. ~Muffin**


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